FCD Notebook: Week of July 19

When FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman brought on Jeff
Cunningham for Dax McCarty at halftime of Saturday’s match against Real Salt Lake,
it signaled FCD would be in a 4-4-2 with Cunningham and newcomer Milton
Rodriguez up top. It was the first time Hyndman’s club had employed that formation in
some time.

The
FCD manager’s rationale for the switch from the 4-1-4-1 with Rodriguez as the lone
striker was simple.

“The score was 0-0, and we weren’t controlling the second
balls in the midfield, and I thought we weren’t getting the best out of our
central midfield with Dax [McCarty] having the injury,” Hyndman said.

“I
didn’t want to go for the tie at home. I think they were happy with the tie but
I wanted to go for the win,” the FCD coach said. “Going in the 4-4-2 gave them
another striker to deal with so (Nat) Borchers and (Jamison) Olave now have a
man each instead of Olave coming over and helping out (Robbie) Russell when
Brek (Shea) got the ball. Olave couldn’t do that in the second half and
Brek became pretty dangerous. We were able to keep defenders a little more
honest.”

McCarty Could Miss Toronto FC Game

One reason for the
lineup change was that McCarty suffered a right quadriceps injury, which forced
him out at the half. The injury first surfaced during training last week.
McCarty ran, but did not participate in Monday morning practice. His status
is uncertain for Saturday’s match with Toronto FC at BMO Field.

“I
think his injury is a little bit more than what we thought it was," Hyndman said. "The more he
had to sprint and strike a ball [it hurt him]. It’s a quadriceps
strain. Those things don’t heal overnight.”

The
FCD manager wasn’t about to rule his linking midfielder out for this weekend, at
least not yet.

RSL Bottles Up Ferreira

After being the
hero of the previous three games for FCD, central attacking midfielder David
Ferreira had a relatively quiet evening against Real Salt Lake. He did deliver a nice corner kick after 10
minutes which Rodriguez headed off the crossbar, but all in all, RSL did a
good job of bottling up the Colombian playmaker.

“That’s
why they [RSL] went with a 4-5-1," Hyndman said. "I think he’s going to get a lot of attention the rest of the year. He’s playing like one of the best players in the league.”